And We'll All Float On OK

Yesterday I finally bought a pair of boxing gloves (only took me two years.) As for actually going to boxing, well, that's another story. Then Dave and I saw Hot Tub Time Machine (which started as a joke but I seriously wanted to see it.) It was pretty crude and funny, I recommend.

On the gig front, I took Dave to see Julian Casablancas at Irving Plaza the other night as an early birthday surprise. An under-hour set, he played his solo stuff as was to be expected, threw in 'I'll Try Anything Once' and 'Hard to Explain' (crowd went bonkers) as well as 'I Wish It Was Christmas Today'. His band was super tight, he had good interactions with the audience, and his voice was consistently powerful in that Julian Casablancas kind of way. Great show overall.

I'm going to see Ash on Saturday - and tickets were only $8! I've never been to Santos House Party so this will be a new experience for me. It's on Dave's actually birthday, poor guy only knows a few Ash songs, though Liz, Graham, and I hazed him with a playlist when we drank at their apartment during the noreaster (and beat them at Trivial Pursuit.) Speaking of Gliz, they went to Iceland (this Iceland, not THAT Iceland) this past week, and the day they landed, a volcano exploded for the first time in 200 years. I'm trying not to yell SCHADENFRAUDE! from the rooftops, though that does suck if that's the volcano they were supposed to be visiting.

Meghan and I went to see Howie Day the night of the second blizzard (and were were slightly preoccupied by the snow blowing sideways outside throughout the set which was slightly insane.) Anyway, Howie Day played an acoustic set, and did that thing I love where he records different sounds with a foot pedal and plays them back during the song. He played mainly new songs but threw in some oldies for good measure. Also, City Winery was a really different venue - assigned seats at tables with strangers, food service throughout, and a small stage (which we were seated very close to.) They also have the France vs. Italy World Cup of Cheese there which just sounds ridiculous (in a good way I think?)

I've also got tickets to see Florence and the Machine (easily my most played album of the year) and Rodrigo y Gabriela which I'm really only going to because Dave wanted to, so hopefully they'll be good. I'm also tempted to see Delphic at Music Hall if we don't go to Vegas that weekend with Vicki and Thom.

Other wee trips I've been planning (in my head) are a weekend to visit my relatives in Florida and a summer weekend trip to Zoe in Ohio. There's also a week-long vacation to who knows where (somewhere hot?) I went to Arizona last week for work - overall pretty chilly in the evening and not as many scary rabbits on the grounds this time. Most eventful part of the week was going to Pizzeria Bianco where they originally told us it was a 3 and a half hour wait (we only waited close to under 2 hours.)

A few weeks ago Zoe and Hal came to town. We went out in the evening and the next day met up with them and Ryan at the Chinese New Year Parade. The dragons were cool, but otherwise the floats were pretty ghetto. The quality of some of them looked worse than high school homecoming floats, or had sponsor names plastered all over them - like the American Airlines float that had a giant airplane with a few Chinese people standing on it.

People were popping pretty confetti the whole time which was the best part. Good luck cleaning that up.

We found Homer enjoying some bubble tea.

Afterwards we roamed the side streets for a non-crowded place to eat. We ended up at some restaurant that we thought looked normal, but our food was basically a bowl of oil with noodles in it. Naturally, that did not stop me from devouring most of it.

We walked down to the Skyscraper museum after that. The main exhibit focused on Shanghai which I think only would have been interesting had I actually been there. Otherwise it's a big room with drawings and models that I think would only be of interest to an architect or engineer. Not worth the visit.

On St. Patrick's Day Hoboken (which I vowed to never go to again after this) we went to Emily and Alex's Jersey Shore-themed party. I Snookified my hair (should have been higher in retrospect) and doubled up on the bronzer. When shopping for my best casual guidette outfit on Steinway Street, I discovered that women actually shop in those stores for real clothes!

Gym, Tanning, Laundry

Alex and some guy

Graham and Liz (and fake nails)

Almost forgot to mention that we bought a plant! It's hanging in our kitchen and is quite pretty with it's purple and green dangling leaves. The guy at the flower shop originally told us it was called something like a "Mandelebra", it needs feeding once/week, and that it cost $20. We thought it over and returned a week later only to have him tell us to feed it every three days and that it cost $15, ummm okay? After conducting some thorough research, a "Mandelebra" does not in fact exist...though a "Wandering Jew" does. How did I end up buying a plant with that name?! Anyway, ours isn't such a big boy (or girl) yet, but this is what the plant looks like:

Songs I love right now:

The Courteeners - You Overdid It Doll (will likely continue playing this throughout the year)
Goldfrapp - Rocket

Jamie T - Emily's Heart

Yeasayer - O.N.E.

Heather and I are planning out what to mix with our vodka tonight. Is it drinking time yet?

Lisztomania

I'm waiting for Heather to pick me up, so to kill some time, here are my top tunes of '09!

60. Fabolous ft. Keri Hilson - Everything, Everyday, Everywhere

59. Bloc Party - One More Chance

58. Foo Fighters - Wheels

57. Skint and Demoralized - Red Lipstick

56. Passion Pit - The Reeling

55. David Guetta ft. Akon - Sexy Bitch

54. Kasabian - Underdog

53. Fightstar - City on Fire

52. Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

51. Britney Spears - 3

50. The Twang - Barney Rubble

49. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

48. Just Jack - The Day I Died

47. Ian Brown - Stellify

46. Doves - Kingdom of Rust

45. Muse - Undisclosed Desires

44. The Big Pink - Dominos

43. Those Dancing Days - Those Dancing Days

42. Phoenix - Lisztomania

41. Miike Snow - Animal

40. The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition

39. Jack Penate - Tonight's Today

38. Scouting For Girls - Elvis Ain't Dead

37. Hockey - Song Away

36. Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning

35. Ian Brown - Just Like You

34. Matt Nathanson - Come on Get Higher

33. The Answering Machine - Emergency

32. Florence and the Machine - Raise it Up

31. Rob Thomas - Her Diamonds

30. Snow Patrol - Just Say Yes

29. 3Oh!3 - Don't Trust Me

28. Death Cab for Cutie - Meet Me On the Equinox

27. Cascada - Evacuate the Dancefloor

26. Matt and Kim - Daylight

25. Coldplay - Strawberry Swing

24. Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor

23. Hockey - Too Fake

22. Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch

21. Cobra Starship ft. Leighton Meester - Good Girls Go Bad

20. White Lies - Farewell to the Fairground

19. Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy

18. Florence and the Machine - Drumming Song

17. Noisettes - Never Forget You

16. Jack Penate - Pull My Heart Away

15. Drake - Best I Ever Had

14. The Cribs - We Share the Same Skies

13. Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA

12. Hockey - Learn to Lose

11. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll

10. Kris Allen - Live Like We're Dying

9. Phoenix - 1901

8. Florence and the Machine – You’ve Got the Love

7. Ladyhawke - Back of the Van

6. Marmaduke Duke - Rubber Lover

5. Friendly Fires - Jump in the Pool

4. Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

3. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

2. The Temper Trap - Fader

1. La Roux - Bulletproof

I know I know, some songs are pre-'09 or technically '10. Don't mind the shady ones as well.

Freeze Right Here

Happy new year! I've started 2009 off with a cough, laryngitis, and a massive sinus headache, causing me to smush the left side of my face all day at work to relieve the pressure. 2010 is looking to be a fab decade already.

jg

If you didn't know, I won a raffle at work a few months ago for 2 roundtrip Business class tickets to London, as well as 3 nights at the 5 star May Fair hotel with breakfast. This was obviously amazing being that I was going to the UK for the holidays anyway. I started the trip off with some chilled out time at the Delta Sky Lounge. This place was my dream airport waiting area - it was quiet, Jeopardy was on the TV, and they had free drinks and nibbles, including the best chocolate truffle of my life.

I'd been seated in First Class once before when I was about ten years old back when my dad could still swing upgrades as he worked for Customs (this flight was great until the transfer when we were seated in the last row of the plane next to the toilets.) I also took business class one way home from Vegas once on a work trip as there were literally no coach flights available out of there for the following two days so I actually didn't have a choice (poor me.) I must tell you, for an airplane I felt like I was getting the royal treatment. I even fell asleep for part of the time (thank you 160 degree beds.) I watched (500) Days of Summer, didn't blow me away like I thought it would but it was cute.

g

Although plans had changed and I wasn't staying with Dave for the first night, he still came to Heathrow to meet me and help with my bag (having a husband is fantabulous.) We headed to Laura's new flat in West Hampstead then promptly went out for Nando's (great website by the way.) We bought Lime Coriander and Medium sauce to cook with, I'll let you know how that goes.

g

Laura and I caught up (and drank almost a whole bottle of Smirnoff in the process) before going to meet peeps at The Borderline. It had started snowing and was past midnight when we called the taxi; her roommates had come home declaring "You can't go out! It's SNOWING!" No offense, but sometimes Londoners are real lightweights when it comes to snow.

With Alex, Ben, and Dan Dan

Emily and AlexLaura and Andy

Graham (and sort of Liz) There were two people in a Donkey suit at the bar. Bummed I didn't get a side shot.

More donkey

Dancin'

I asked the DJ to play Justice for Dan Dan and he responded with something like "Who?" And I was like you know, the band with the cross symbol. Still nothing. He turned Liz down on The Ting Tings too. Variety man! And that is why I prefer The Roxy.

After Laura and I returned home and ate about 12 pitas in a 5 hour time period, it was time for me to meet Dave in Romford (well, Gidea Park on the train if we're being technical.) He came with Ricky, Antony, and Amy (who we were staying with) and we trekked across the ice to their house. Then we spent the night making fun of Christmas Number Ones and playing Rock Band.
fg
The following day I went to Camden to meet Joy for a catch-up. We walked around for a bit but the snow just started pounding. I've never seen London like that, and Camden actually looked quite pretty. Dave and I booked it back to Romford, worried that our train would be massively delayed, which by some way of a miracle it wasn't. The five of us did a pub quiz, in which we came in 7th - which there was actually a prize for, being that we were the halfway team. We won a pound, so only nine pounds lost in all. Then Dave, Antony, Amy and myself had a game of Monopoly which I won! I beat a banker, a doctor, and a maths PhD student - how about a round of applause then (the key is getting all the crap properties, browns, blues, and purples ya know?)

jg

The next week was spent in St. Osyth at the in-laws'. We did some shopping in Colchester, went to the Red Lion for Christmas Eve (as well as a pop in on Xmas as everyone gets a free pint), spent Christmas Day at Tony and Melinda's friends' house (and played lots of Beatles RB and Rock Band 1), went to Daniel's to see our niece and nephew, and M&T had their friends over for a dinner party (and more Beatles Rock Band harmonizing.) We also went to Colchester vs Southampton. The field was so foggy by the end that we couldn't even see the goal on the other side of the pitch (Dave has the photos so the upload will follow.) My favorite part of that game was listening to the guys in the stands heckle Eddie, the sulking mascot who I think was supposed to be an eagle. And also seeing the team tackle him after their goal.

Eddie

Back in Romford for a night, Dave, Ricky, and I watched 7 episodes of Flight of the Conchords Season 2 in a row. Because 'Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor' never gets old.

Ricky is a paramedic and was telling us ridiculous stories of how violent some of the callers are, as well as people calling for unnecessary "emergencies." I think my favorite was about a Somalian guy who called 999 because his legs hurt or were tired or something and didn't want to take himself to the doctor. When Ricky asked if he would have called an ambulance in Somalia for this, he responded "No, we only call the ambulance if it's an emergency." Doh.

The next day Dave and I checked into The May Fair. It was a trendy, boutique-type hotel with a simple, modern room and a big shower. They delivered a complimentary bowl of fruit to our room which was really nice and knocked on the door each day to see if everything was okay. The only bad thing I have to say was that the breakfast service was terrible. There's too much to complain about so I won't write the details, but if you ever book a room there, do not pay for the breakfast, there's a Sainsbury across the street and a Starbucks around the corner. No celeb spottings by the way.

In our free hotel room

On New Year's Eve we joined Laura and other peeps at Tabernacle near Old Street. I recognized the bar when I got inside as I remember having this conversation there. It was a low key New Year's, with Laura and I grabbing for burgers - reminiscent of the year we ate about 30 tuna sandwiches at the end of the night at Salmon River. (In this blog I've already discussed Laura and I stuffing our faces with pitas, hamburgers, tuna sandwiches, and vodka - do you see a pattern here?) The night ended with Dave and I taking a trip to Finsbury Park instead of Green Park (whoops.)

The next few days were mainly spent walking around central London as the hotel was in a very accessible location. I surprisingly did not blow all my money in FOPP, but I did buy Human Traffic on DVD for 2 pounds, as well as Franz and Stereophonics live DVDs for cheap too (in duty free HMV I also bought the latest Muse, Editors, Doves, and finally La Roux.) I heard about 294 languages in Primark and the only girls I heard speaking English I could barely understand. After ages pushing through people and queuing, I only ended up buying tights (love my new blueberry ones!), two plain long sleeve shirts, and some underwear. A good 12 pounds spent then. I also saw Shiraz for post New Year's drinks at the pub (though I don't know if he understood anything I said being that I lost my voice), a drink with Jay at All Bar One, Italian dinner followed by drinks at the pub with Laura, Dan Dan, and Alex, and a pub lunch with multiple hot chocolates with Sunil. Lots of pubs then. And you bet I hit Hex on the quiz machines.

There were giant inflatable things on Carnaby Street this year Crazy Billy hanging out the window

Posing (and freezing) on South Molton StreetI forget which arcade this isBig ballsReflectionMe and Winston was like peas and carrots

Hanging with the guys

On the last night we checked into a hotel (Park Inn) near Heathrow as I had to leave early the next morning. I forced Dave to watch Celebrity BB to see who was entering the house. What is up with Heidi Fleiss' face?! It was three years ago that I went to see celebs go in myself. Time flies!! Anyway, the local buses were quite confusing, particularly for getting to Terminal 4 but I made it in the end via the 4 pound shuttle. The Sky lounge at Heathrow was much better than the one at JFK, they had a full buffet breakfast that was bangin'. On the way back I watched The Office wedding episode (finally), Up (sad at times, cute, funny, but a bit slow moving) and Inglorious Basterds which was excellent (Spock included.) I also watched Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor...again.

I didn't do my "Top 60" of 2009 yet. That's next up on the blog queue. I quite like that 'Tik Tok' song, dear me.

Life in Plastic, It's Fantastic

The Barbies of 2009 are truly bland, what happened? I remember wanting one so badly, and for my birthday during 1st grade I got 3 -

Exercise Barbie (I had the gym too)Day to Night Barbie And Peaches and Cream Barbie (what a dress!)

The selection today (in the giant Barbie section of Toys R' Us no less) was pretty much bare except for some generic looking Barbies and random guys (what happened to Ken?) as well as some convertibles and ponies. We got our niece a Barbie that has long hair and you can do cool things with it so that one's got a bit of oomph at least. Two things I always put on my Chanukah list as a kid that I'm still waiting for are the giant Barbie head (you could do her hair and make-up):

And the Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker

I found out the trick to surviving Times Square Toys R' Us during the holidays, which is to pay on the ground floor. There are literally 30+ people on all of the other lines, on the main floor I had 1 person in front of me with three cashiers - it was kind of amazing at the lack of common sense people have.

Since Dave left for England, I've been mostly catching up on all the DVR'ed shows as I'm behind from the wedding and honeymoon (typical stuff, just saw the Gossip Girl threesome, uh boring.) And I have some Jersey Shore to catch up on. Have you seen this cartoon yet? I enjoy The Situation.

(It's so nice it's posted twice.)

Even the guys I shared houses with in Fire Island weren't THAT bad.

Speaking of people attempting to look muscular, I joined Synergy tonight. NYSC was too expensive, and I was taking two subways just to get there. I will miss my boxing classes but hopefully this will be a new era (with my own clean, non-stinky, sweaty gloves.) The schedule is looking good so far. The classes I want to take are Boxing, Cardio Dance, Cardio Kickboxing, Zumba (never tried it, what's the deal?), and Spinning. Do we think there's a difference when Kikboxing is spelt with a k? Is it harder?

Off-topic - Some people sent me wedding photos as email attachments. Before I plop them in the post, I'm not sure if everyone knew of all the bad things that happened the weekend leading up to the wedding. The disasters included:
- There was supposed to be a Noreaster.
- My hairdresser (who I've been going to since I'm 12) canceled because she had to go into the hospital. She helped me get a replacement but I didn't confirm it till about 12 hours before she needed to show.
- The car I was driving to the rehearsal dinner stalled in the middle of Jericho Turnpike and my dad had to come rescue me.
- The hotel bellman moved all of the girls' dresses over to the bridal suite at the venue. The bracelet I bought specifically to wear on the hand where the wedding band was to go was in a box in a bag on the cart. It disappeared and I ordered the maitre'd and bridal attendant to search for it outside (you can boss people around on your wedding day which is kind of awesome.) After 20 minutes, they came back with the wet, smashed top and bottom of the box but there was no bracelet to be found (which by the way I coincidentally (?) saw a guest wearing at the reception.)
- Gail went into the bathroom of the bridal suite in navy sweatpants and came out with them dyed with pink splotches because some idiot decided to bleach the floor and leave it all wet before we all went in with our dresses.
- No Noreaster but it rained enough that we couldn't take any photos outside.

Well, that's about it for the bad parts, but the rest was amazing. I'm not just saying that because I was the bride. Now for a few photos (more to come when I get the official ones.)

Rehearsal Dinner

Walking down the aisleParents up at the frontBridesmaids in tealThe ceiling above us Doing the marriage thing

"I do"

Married! (again!)

We walked into the reception to Magic Carpet Ride

ParentalsFromkin family photo Lanes

Tomorrow night I shall be going to dinner at Jean Georges Nougatine. Feel free to be jealous.

Current Music: The Bravery - Fistful of Sand

Words Don't Sink It Swims

I haven't written a blog in ages. Thought I'd start this one off a bit cheery but I had to go and spill matzoh ball soup all over the kitchen floor. And I don't have any paper towels. And it's all over me after I just took a shower. Motherfucker!!!

Chappy Chanukah peeps! I got some fun stuff for the holidays like this new watch -

A bangin' Coach bag

And the Twilight DVD

I kind of Twilighted myself out this weekend - watched that Saturday night, then watched Taylor Lautner on SNL, then finally saw New Moon on Sunday. The best part of that movie was when Jacob got a haircut, hallelujah!

Jacob before - sorry but this hairdo is just so so so so bad The haircut wasn't the only improvement. The hot body definitely helps.

Jacob after - so so so SO good

Can I be Team Jacob for the actor but Team Edward for the character? Is that legal? The effects in this movie were ten times better than Twilight, those were just laughable (but laughable in a way that I will still watch the DVD repeatedly.)

We had the first annual MTV Games Bake-Off today. I actually tried to make something both fattening and tasty for a change. I decided on Chocolate Nut Bars (recipe courtesy of some lady who contributed it to Lauren's bridal shower book.) Personally, I thought it was delicious but the middle was a bit mushy when I cut it. I put the pieces in a more vertical rather than horizontal tupperware container - that with the combined "falling apart effect" made my entry appear unappealing to the masses - I think maybe two people touched it. Next year I'm all about presentation, or at least something simple people can grab, like cookies, or Holiday Turds (which someone actually entered.) At least I now have staples in my house that I'll never use again such as white and brown sugar as well as flour and vanilla extract.

Chocolate Nut Bars aside, I'm headed to the UK on Friday wahoo!!! If you don't include my 5 hour stopover at Heathrow over the summer, I haven't been back to London since last Xmas/New Years. Not sure if I blogged or bragged repeatedly about this previously, but I won the grand prize in a raffle at a voluntary seminar at work. Well, let me tell you my friend, sitting through that was well worth it as I won a pair of round trip business class tickets to London with a three night stay at The May Fair for two with breakfast included. Now what to do about the paparazzi who will be stalking me outside the hotel?

Things I plan to do while I'm there include seeing my friends (can't wait!!), figuring out how to get to central London from where I'm staying (Tring anyone?), eating drunken falafel (preferably in Camden), getting my Britpop on, spending time with Dave's family, beating him in Wii shuffleboard, and doing some shopping. Does anyone have New Year's plans yet because I'd like to jump on that, thanks.

This blog post will not contain any proper photos as I'm working off our desktop that runs on Linux. Yes, you heard me correctly. I have no freakin' idea how to use this thing except for the internet and the geography game. Speaking of photos, MTV opened a "Digital Oasis" on one of our floors. It contains a bunch of those kiosks you find in a Duane Reade and you can not only print photos from a CD, memory stick, internet, etc., but you can even make photo albums, calendars, posters, and more. And we get a $100 credit each month to use it. Not sure if I should print honeymoon pics or Southeast Asia ones that have been sitting on a disc for three years first. Also, in case you are wondering, I haven't received digital photos from the wedding photographer yet, hence nothing for the blog or F-book for the moment.

Songs I've been obsessed with lately:
The Temper Trap - Fader
Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart
The Cribs - We Share the Same Skies

I plan to do a Top 60 again towards the end of the year (or this week.) As for the gigs, I kind of lost track of what I've been to lately which is a first, eek. I also don't have many people I wanted to punch in the face in 2009 so that list may not appear as well, though I'll try hard to brainstorm for that one.

Anyway, let's leave it with "Fader" because it's so so good and the love needs to be spread. Think Wham! if they were around in 2009. My God I could listen to this all day. If anyone can get me into the Koko show on the 21st I'll buy you Digestives.

This isn't an actual video, but an image with the song playing.